Retail selling of gasoline and other vehicle fuels is a major industry throughout the world. By one recent estimate, there are on the order of 200,000 retail fuel service stations in the United States alone.
Such stations are referred to as either "full service" stations or "self service" stations, depending on whether a station employee or the customer himself is responsible for manipulating the pump, fuel hose, and valve structure into position for fueling the vehicle. In either case, however, substantial human activity is required by a person outside the vehicle to accomplish the fueling of the vehicle fuel tank.
In view of the extremely high volume of retail fuel sales, the high costs of providing full service, and the inconvenience for a customer of all the manipulative steps necessary for vehicle fueling, a need exists for improved fueling station methods and apparatus. In particular, a need exists for practical automatic fueling apparatus and methods.
A number of attempts have been made in the prior art to improve fueling procedures in the retail vehicle fueling industry. Some examples include the disclosures of the following U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,095,020 (Darwin) PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,364,940 (Ginsburgh et al.) PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,410,320 (Ginsburgh et al.) PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,502,117 (Nebelsiek et al.) PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,527,268 (Ginsburgh) PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,530,906 (Ginsburgh et al.) PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,536,109 (Ginsburgh et al.) PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,642,036 (Ginsburgh et al.).
These patents describe various methods and types of apparatus for facilitating fueling, and for automatic fueling using overhead, on-ground or below-ground equipment. The Ginsburgh et al. patents describe in great detail an automatic overhead fueling system.
Each of the prior disclosures of automatic fueling apparatus and methods has substantial inherent practical problems. In some cases, the basic concepts for engaging fueling lines with the vehicle fuel tanks are impractical. One prior system undertakes the task of identifying vehicle types in order to locate and properly engage the fueling inlets on the hundreds, if not thousands, of kinds of vehicles. The practical technical problems encountered in such an undertaking are enormous, and such systems have not been successful.
A need has existed for a more practical approach to automatic engagement with the fuel tank inlets of vehicles. One particular need is for an improved nozzle apparatus which can reliably locate and properly engage fuel inlets of vehicle tanks. In a more general sense, there is a need for an improved inletlocating and engaging nozzle apparatus of a type usable with bottom inlets, such as inlets on tank bottoms, and a need for improved automatic inlet-engaging methods.